A Gift For Your Yard and To Our Community

We want to help you plant a native tree in your yard! A provider of beauty, shade, and wildlife habitat, your new tree will grow over time and add to the environmental health of our community by absorbing carbon dioxide and helping reduce flooding. Together, let's add a tree to your yard and our community's tree canopy. Please note: My Tree, Our Tree participation is limited to Cary citizens.

Event Details

The My Tree, Our Tree FREE tree giveaway will take place on Saturday, October 5, 2024, from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.  Please note, the tree pickup is rain or shine. This is the ONLY DAY to pick up a tree.

Tree Selection 

We will have 1,000 native trees available to Cary citizens (one per household). All tree species for the fall giveaway will be briefly described below in advance of the lottery opening. The number of each species is limited, so you might consider all that would be appropriate for your landscape. When completing the lottery registration form, you will be able to rank choices in order of preference and omit any trees that would not work in your yard.

Registration has Closed

Registration for the tree lottery closed on September 11 at 5 p.m. All entrants will be emailed their results around September 23.

Have questions about the lottery? Call 311 in Cary or (919) 469-4000 outside Town limits, or email 311@carync.gov or visit carync.gov/311.

Need Help with Tree Pick-up or Planting?

The pick-up is a one-day event. This is the ONLY day to pick up your tree. Participants who are unable to pick up or plant their trees can get assistance. We have volunteers who will help! After participants receive confirmation they have been awarded a tree, they can contact  311 to learn how they can request assistance picking up or planting their trees. Call 311 or email 311@carync.gov.

Materials Provided to Registrants

In addition to a free native tree, participants received:

• Gift certificate for a free bag of topsoil
• Gift certificate for a free bag of mulch 
• Rain gauge, if desired

Tree Planting Tips

We want to help you plant and grow a healthy, happy tree!

Watch this brief video by a master arborist as she describes five easy steps to properly plant a tree.

Here are a few additional resources to help with tree planting.

• Tree Planting Instructions
• Beautyberry Planting Instructions
• Tree Owners Manual
• Additional Resources

Pick-up Process

On Saturday, October 5, 2024, lottery recipients will pick up their tree between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. in the lower level of the Cary Parking Deck, 121 Wilkinson Ave., on Town Hall campus. The tree pick-up process is a ONE-WAY traffic pattern. Signs will guide participants to ENTER the lowest level of the parking deck through the Herbert C. Young Community Center parking lot. After check-in, participants will be directed to a pick-up station where a tree will be loaded into their vehicle. Participants will EXIT the deck one level up onto Wilkinson Ave. 

Pick-ups are contactless, drive-through events, much like picking up your pre-ordered groceries.

• Participants should prepare their vehicle in advance by placing a tarp, sheet, or towel down to collect any dirt from the tree. The back seat can be folded down to accommodate the tree, if necessary.
• At check-in, participants will be asked the address the tree will be planted then receive a colored card that corresponds to their tree species and they will hand it to a volunteer at the pick-up station.
• Participants will remain in their vehicle.
• Participants will pop the trunk or unlock the doors when they get to a tree loading station so volunteers can load a tree in their car.

Tree Species for Fall 2024

	Flowering Dogwood Cornus florida- The beautiful white flowers of this small native tree adorn Cary’s seal, and for good reason! Our native dogwood puts on a beautiful display of four petaled white flowers early in the spring, which change to bright red berries in the winter. It does best in light shade to part sun and wants a lot of good soil and care the first year. Treat it right, and it can grow into a beautiful feature for your yard.  plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/cornus-florida/
	Fringe Tree Chionathus virginicus- This small flowering tree will make you look twice! The fringe tree earns its name from fringe like white flowers that cover it in late spring. It is a small and slow growing tree, reaching a mature height of about twenty feet. Full sun brings the most blooms, but it can tolerate part shade, and particularly likes shade in the afternoon.  It prefers moist soils but can tolerate some drought once established. Prune it into a single stem tree, or let it grow into a fatter shrub like shape for the biggest flower show. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/chionanthus-virginicus/
Photo Credits: form in spring Brunswick Nature Park skdavidson CC-BY-SA 2.0 NC Cooperative Extension and NHC Arboretum	Oak – White Oak Quercus alba-  White oak is a wonderful native, large maturing tree. The bark has an ashy-gray color that gets shaggy as the tree matures. The fall leaves turn a dark reddish brown. These stately trees are great shade trees that can grow between 60-130 feet tall, with broad, rounded crowns. Wonderful wildlife tree providing food and habitat for birds, butterflies and small mammals. This oak prefers partial shade to full sun and is drought tolerant once established. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/quercus-alba/
	Pawpaw Asimina triloba- Pawpaw grows in deep shade to full sunlight in moist, nutrient-rich forests. It will tolerate occasional wet or moist conditions but prefers good drainage and acidic soil. In late summer to early fall, pawpaw produces an edible, sweet-tasting, and custard like fruit measuring 2.5 to 6 inches. Harvesting the fruit can be difficult with competition from ambitious wildlife. It is recommended to wear gloves when harvesting as contact dermatitis has been known to occur. Pawpaw does well in naturalized, riparian, or woodland areas. It is a flowering tree that attracts butterflies, pollinators, small mammals, and song  birds, which makes pawpaw a good addition to a butterfly, pollinator, or rain garden. Flies and beetles are beneficial pollinators attracted to the foul odor of flowers. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/asimina-triloba/
Photo Credits: Tree Jim Robbins CC BY-NC-ND 4.0	Sugarberry Celtis laevigata- This native deciduous tree is a fast-growing tree that reaches 50-70 feet in height. The leaves are oblong and turn yellow in the fall. Probably most recognizable by its unique bark, which is smooth with warty/corky bumps as it matures. The tree is tolerant of soil compaction and prefers full sun to partial shade. Sugarberry is a wildlife friendly tree, producing small, deep purple fruits that are a favorite of birds. It is also a host plant to a number of butterflies including the American snout, Hackberry emperor and the Ruddy dagger. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/celtis-laevigata/common-name/sugarberry/

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